US President George W Bush tonight pledged he to do everything he could to help Northern Ireland's parties to strike a deal in talks to revive power-sharing.
As Sinn Fein and the Rev Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionists considered the latest proposals to bring back Northern Ireland's Assembly, US President confirmed he had contacted the provinces politicians in a bid to encourage them to reach agreement.
Speaking on his ranch in Crawford, Texas, Mr Bush said he had sought to get Sinn Fein and the DUP "to the table to get a deal done to close the agreement they'd been working on for a while".
The Associated Press also reported Mr Bush as saying he would do "everything I can do to help keep the process moving forward".
Earlier, the Rev Ian Paisley confirmed he received a call from the US President at lunchtime.
Mr Bush was also expected to talk to Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, who met British Prime Minister Tony Blair and former South African President Nelson Mandela in London today.
Sinn Fein and the DUP were tonight studying revised proposals from the British and Irish governments covering a range of issues including new powersharing arrangements, the scaling down of military installations in Northern Ireland and future IRA disarmament.
Mr Paisley said he had told President Bush his party needed the IRA to disappear forever.
"I told him I would like to be in a position to make a deal but that any deal must be fair and it must address to my satisfaction and my electorate's satisfaction all the fundamental issues that have blocked progress for so long," the North Antrim MP said.
"We told him that we must build a solid foundation in order to move forward.
"We reminded the President of the fact that he would not have terrorists in his government and that we must be satisfied that IRA terrorism is over and cannot return."
President Bush's intervention was reminiscent of his predecessor Bill Clinton's phone calls to unionist and nationalist leaders in the final hours running up to the negotiation of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.
But it is Sinn Fein and the DUP studied the latest proposals, it was still unclear tonight if they would be able to agree in these talks a lasting political settlement.